Chinese noodles with turkey and bok choy

This week, there was an article in The SF Chronicle about how versatile noodles are and how you can make so many inexpensive dishes with them. They had a few great looking recipes for stir fry, so I modified a little to make this recipe. The original recipe called for ground lamb, but I opted for all white meat turkey because it's January and I am still trying to be good this year;) I had never cooked with 'Mirin' before, but this Japanese rice wine turned out to be the key flavor in the dish. I also picked up baby bok choy at the farmer's market this week. I got a huge bunch for a dollar, so I think this whole meal was maybe ten bucks total. The kids loved the noodles and they also liked the ground turkey a lot. Jacob even went for the bok choy. Dan and I really like these kinds of dishes spicy, so I served ours with some hot chili sauce (like Sriracha-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha) on the side.

Chinese noodles with turkey and bok choy

Timing - 25 minutes

Ingredients
2 T mirin
2 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 lbs ground turkey
1.5 T corn starch
2 T ginger, grated or finely minced
1 large or 2 small leeks, white and light green only, chopped into half moons
4-5 heads baby bok choy (about 3 cups, chopped; for baby bok choy, you can use the stems and leaves)
1 lb Chinese rice noodles (wide or thin - you could also use vermicelli in a pinch)
Canola oil

How to Make
Boil the water for the pasta and cook according to package directions for al dente. Drain the noodles and set aside.

Combine the mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil and one of the minced cloves of garlic in a bowl. Pour half of this marinade over the turkey and let sit. Combine the corn starch with 1/4 cup COLD water and combine with the remaining marinade.

Heat a wok or large frying pan to medium-high heat and then add about 1.5 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is very hot, brown the turkey breaking up but leaving in fairly large pieces, until it is nicely browned and cooked through. Remove the turkey to a bowl.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan. Stir fry the remaining garlic, ginger and leeks for about a minute until they start to cook and then add the bok choy. Cook until the vegetables are just crisp tender. Remove the vegetables from the pan and add them to the turkey.

Add 1.5 final tablespoons of oil to the pan and then fry the noodles for about 45 seconds. Add the sauce and vegetables/turkey to the pan and cook a few minutes to incorporate and until the sauce thickens slightly. Serve with additional soy sauce and hot chili sauce.

Serves 6